60 Arrested at Anti-IMF Demonstration in Istanbul

Riot police fired tear gas Monday and arrested 60 students protesting in sympathy with demonstrators in Washington who accuse world financial institutions of burdening developing countries.

Some of the more than 100 students who gathered for the protest in downtown Istanbul were slightly injured, the Anatolian news agency said. Television station NTV showed riot police grabbing students by their arms and legs and carrying them away.

Police said the students did not have a permit to hold the demonstration.

The protesters in Washington, where international finance meetings are being held, say the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are saddling countries with crushing debt payments and promoting environmental destruction and sweatshops.

Turkey is carrying out an ambitious anti-inflation program backed by a $4-billion loan package from the IMF.

Also in Istanbul, a small group of left-wing students stormed a U.S. education fair and burned an American flag to protest the U.S. military and business presence in Turkey.

Holding banners that read, “Yankee go home” and “Take your soldiers, military bases, your hamburgers,” about 20 students raided a presentation of U.S. colleges aimed at attracting Turkish students. They later left the premises of Istanbul Technical University peacefully.

The U.S. Air Force uses a southern Turkish air base to monitor a “no-fly” zone over northern Iraq.